Dcuati Valencia test day 2 report

VALENCIA SESSION CONCLUDES FOR ROSSI AND HAYDEN
The second and final day of testing at Valencia took place in sunny
conditions, allowing both Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden to make full
use of the available track time. Rossi worked closely ...

VALENCIA SESSION CONCLUDES FOR ROSSI AND HAYDEN

The second and final day of testing at Valencia took place in sunny
conditions, allowing both Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden to make full
use of the available track time. Rossi worked closely together with
Filippo Preziosi on the setting of the GP11 machine with the big bang
engine configuration, completing 70 laps. His detailed feedback and the
data gathered over the past two days will help the Ducati engineers
develop the GP11 and adapt it more to the riding style of the nine-time
World Champion.

Nicky Hayden spent a lot of time out on track today, completing 91 laps
throughout the session and testing both the screamer and big bang
versions of the engine, setting his best time on the latter version and
ending up sixth fastest overall. The American was able to improve his
pace from the weekend and was satisfied with the job done.

NICKY HAYDEN (Ducati Marlboro Team) 6th fastest - 1:32'583

"That's it -- the season is finally over! Today was a positive day
for us. We tried the screamer and it wasn't easy to switch between
engines but it was important to do a proper test on them both and get the
data we need to make an important decision. I am leaning towards sticking
with the big bang but we will make the decision together. In general I am
happy because we have been pretty quick. We know there is a lot of work
to do but we are ready to get on with it. We tried a new Bridgestone,
which I liked a lot and actually I did my fastest time on it. I also went
well on the race tyre we used on Sunday and we were just a couple of
tenths off my best. We tested some other things that I liked but we need
to test them more. I want to thank everybody in the team because they did
a great job as always even though it wasn't easy, coming on the back of
two races."

FILIPPO PREZIOSI, Direttore Generale Ducati Corse

"After these two days of tests we will go back to Ducati for a
meeting, where we will decide which path to take between the two engines,
the big bang and the screamer, although the information we have is
pointing towards the former. It will be a decision we will make by
analysing the data in depth as well as planning the way forward around
all the other things we learnt at the test. The objective is clearly to
allow Valentino to ride like Valentino! We know we have to improve the
bike in order to achieve this, especially the front end. He has given us
some very precise information and now it is down to us to use it. We
would obviously have liked to give him the opportunity to go faster today
but even though that wasn't the case he has impressed everybody over the
last two days with the way he works, his calm approach and his positive
attitude towards everything. Nicky also worked very hard, as usual, and
set a good lap time on the new Bridgestones as well as the ones we were
already using, which is another big positive. Now we have to work to give
them both a more competitive bike for the next test."